Western Union Co. is the company many people think about when they need to send money abroad. But the pioneer, founded in 1851, is facing new competition from PayPal, Apple Inc. and Walmart Inc., as well as new geopolitical risks around the world.

In his growing beer business, Constellation Brands Inc. CFO Robert Ryder says managing swings in foreign currencies and commodity prices have become a bigger part of the job. He spoke with CFO Journal’s Emily Chasan about setting up a new hedging program and explaining it to investors.

Corporations could be entering a new phase of currency volatility. Emerging-market currencies in countries such as Argentina, India and China could have a bigger impact on earnings in the coming years.

“In the very long term there’s a good reason to invest in emerging markets, however in the next few years I think we’ll see a lot of volatility,” said Bilal Hafeez, Deutsche Bank AG’s global head of foreign exchange strategy.

Large U.S. multinational companies reported about $4.2 billion in hits to earnings and revenue in the third quarter, driven primarily by swings in the Brazilian real, Japanese yen, Indian rupee and Australian dollar.

A total of 205 companies said currency moves had negatively impacted their results in the third quarter of 2013 – the lowest number since the third quarter the prior year, according to a review of 846 public companies by FiREapps, a foreign exchange risk-management company

U.S. companies reported losing over $4 billion to foreign exchange swings last quarter, and currency volatility could still increase in the third quarter.

Some 233 U.S. companies reported negative foreign currency impacts to their revenue and earnings in the second quarter, according to a quarterly analysis of 800 multinational companies’ conference calls by foreign exchange risk-management company FiREapps. The number of companies reporting those losses was the second-highest since the company started tracking these calls – outpaced only by the second-quarter a year ago when 250 companies cited currency headwinds.

U.S. companies that do significant chunks of their business in Japanese yen are starting to see some serious costs associated with the currency’s recent decline.

“It’s having a significant top line and bottom line impact,” Wolfgang Koester, chief executive of foreign exchange risk-management company FiREapps told CFO Journal. While companies have spent much of the past year focused on protecting themselves from fluctuations in European currencies, the impact of the dollar-yen exchange rate over the past quarter has taken some companies by surprise, and could worsen if companies fail to put in hedges to absorb some of the impact, Mr. Koester said.

Corporate disclosures on hedge accounting and derivatives trading are so opaque that investors are often unable to see the true risks companies face from engaging in those activities, according to a new report from the CFA Institute, which is recommending companies improve disclosures in those areas.

The institute, which represents chartered financial analysts, said its research shows that investors want to be able to differentiate between the effect of a company’s core business activities on its performance and the effects of hedges or derivatives.